In The Beginning…
I used to be big into NFL football. Following player statistics, watching the NFL draft, playing fantasy football… All of it. I knew every player on my favorite team’s 53-man roster, even those who never played.
Every Sunday (or occasional Monday evening), I would spend hours watching games. Then over the following days I would read about the games I just watched in anticipation of the ones coming up.
Pardon my French, but what a fucking waste of time.
A Few Small Pushes…
There were a few points that nudged me in the direction of going cold turkey on football (and professional sports in general).
The first was that I absolutely despised the owner of my favorite team. Seeing as how I’ve written about living in the DC-area on this blog, it should come as no surprise that the owner of my favorite football team was and continues to be this piece of human garbage.
In addition to being an all around scumbag, he is also just really bad at owning and operating a football team. As a result, I stopped buying any team paraphernalia because I didn’t want him to get a dime from me. Why should he get money from me for being terrible at his job?
The second little nudge was when I realized what might otherwise seem obvious to most people: I cannot influence the outcome of any of these games. Now, the case could be made that if you’re a fan who attends games that you can somehow contribute to the cacophony that makes up home field advantage. However, I didn’t go to games because of my aforementioned disgust at the idea of giving the ownership any money.
Reaching Total Enlightenment…
Once I accepted these two nudges that separated me a bit from my fandom, I realized the ultimate truth that professional sports teams don’t want anyone to know:
This shit has zero impact on my real life.
And you know what did have an impact on my life? All the time and energy I got back once I stopped caring about it and made a conscious choice to ignore it.
Sports Season is Over
The best way I can describe this is to relate it back to my days as a high school athlete. When you train six days per week for several hours before and after school, plus competing on weekends (or sometimes week nights), you have to be very discerning about what you commit time to do. Most down time is just eating, homework, and sleeping (and not necessarily in that order).
Then, the season ends.
All of a sudden, you have hours after school that you can just hang out with your friends, watch TV, do whatever you want! Everyday! I remember this euphoric sense of feeling well rested, unstressed, and like I had an unfathomable amount of time for leisure.
So what did I do with all my newfound time free of professional sports? I decided to turn my attention to more productive endeavors. Things that were actually within my sphere of influence. Things that would improve my skills. I improved upon or discovered other hobbies that I find to be infinitely more gratifying.
A funny thing happened at work, too. The water cooler talk about the game this past weekend changed. My disinterest in what had happened in last weekend’s game actually improved my professional work ethic because I genuinely wasn’t interested any longer in these discussions. Instead, I spent this time… *gasp*… actually working!
Unplugging From The Matrix
I can’t help but think there are so many people out there who would benefit from just a nudge or two away from sports fandom. We could all collectively turn our attention to things that actually matter!
Imagine if we channeled all of the money and effort that goes into professional sports into something else that would have a lasting and meaningful impact. What if we treated other, more noble professions,* like we do professional athletes? And, perhaps what I’m underscoring most in this post, what if all of the people following these leagues channeled their time and effort into something more meaningful?
I know I’m not the first person to realize this. Anybody with me?
*Which, let’s be honest, are most other professions…
It sounds like you missed Antonio Gibson’s 27 yard carry against NY last night!? Real optimism moving forward… If they get it together and go all the way next season Washington may finally get that cancer research facility and bipartisanship needed to transform it into a first class, functional city.
Thanks for your comment! Yeah, I would probably pay attention to professional sports if a team’s success meant more funding from the league for local infrastructure. Maybe that could be a consolation prize alternative to the (seemingly-doomed) infrastructure bill in congress?